A Glitch in the System
by SonicSilverHedgehog
Summary: Please be aware that this does feature cars Top Gear specifically , so if you don't like cars, don't read. Also, I, Darren, am the main character, and Sonic is not actually featured. It takes place slightly after Sonic the Hedgehog #217, I think.
1. Author's Note

This is my first submission of FanFiction, but it's not my first Sonic story. Note here there is reference to the Top Gear Test Track, for you "petrolheads," and a use of cars. I had decided to make it take place during Archie Sonic #216-217 where Sonic is away at Sand Blast City with Bunnie D'Coolette. There is a bit of intro to each character, as this was a school project (in a sense), and not everybody knows Sonic the Hedgehog. Hope you enjoy it, and feel free to comment!


	2. Chapter 1

Darren Lee January 18, 2012

Creative Writing English

Into a New Dimension 3: A Glitch in the System

Another day on planet Mobius. A peaceful day on a racetrack that our computer friend NICOLE had built. Essentially, it is sort of like VR, but it is actually there, while being made out of computerized micro-machines called nanites. Because of their versatility, the track could be adjusted to my liking. Today, the track is a copy of BBC's Top Gear Test Track, which is over in our world in Dunsfold, England. Amidst all things, though, it seems like you need a backstory…

In what was 2008 over here in our world, I had gotten my first Sonic the Hedgehog comic, the first in the regular series. I was somehow sucked into the comic, and met the characters, the Freedom Fighters who were fighting against the dastardly evil Dr. Robotnik and his world-domination-by-roboticization plot. Since then, I had fought with the Freedom Fighters, foiling every one of Robotnik's plans.

Back to now…Robotnik had disappeared some two weeks ago, leaving us with some breathing room. I was spending my time driving an Italian exotic—the Pagani Zonda R: an Italian masterpiece with a Mercedes V12 placed in the center of the car. I loved driving the Zonda R. Its enormous and deafening V12 blaring from quad tailpipes, the backfiring of the tailpipes, and the glorious tire squeal in tossing it through corners was all I needed to drive around the Top Gear Test Track in an excited mood.

That's when it had happened. Coming up toward Gambon corner, the left side of the car jerked upward on the corner, causing it to barrel roll. It rolled and rolled and rolled until it went to rest next to a pile of tires.

Because the Zonda was wrecked, I had to push the twisted mess of carbon fibre into the garage at the side of the track. My fellow Freedom Fighter and superb mechanic Miles "Tails" Prower was there.

"Whoa. What in the world happened?" he asked.

"The Zonda flipped on Gambon." I replied.

"Well, maybe you should look at the underbody to see if there's anything's wrong."

"Exactly what I was going to do."

Upon looking at the underbody, the rear differential had split into two.

"Perhaps the engine blew," Tails inferred.

"No, the V12 is still functional." I responded after restarting it.

"Then perhaps there was a tire blowout."

"I wouldn't think so. I checked the tire temperatures and pressure, and it wouldn't be able to blow up. Besides, the Zonda doesn't have enough torque…"

Okay, so the car terminology went on and on until both of us concluded that it was sabotage.

"Only one person I know could've done this, and that is Bean."

Bean is a mercenary…who is a rather oddball-type of duck. He was notorious for producing bombs in midair. Since we had nowhere else to go, Tails and I took my custom Zonda F that wasn't broken and drove off looking for Bean.

During the drive, Tails and I were able to talk a bit about the recent events, and Bean.

"Didn't Amy run into Bean not too long ago?" I asked.

"Yeah, and Nack the Weasel was their leader," Tails said back.

"Didn't Amy leave NICOLE in that cavern the whole night?"

"Yeah, imagine NICOLE's face when Amy went back to her!"

"I thought she could only give off emoticons and text on the handheld…She would keep that :( for a long time!"

"Ha ha!"

"Say, where do you think Bean would be going?"

"Some lowdown place of some sort. Perhaps the Bottom of the Barrel Bar 'n' Grill."

"Man, I can't forget about that time when Sonic had outsmarted Nack there. That was years ago!"

We found Bean at the Bottom of the Barrel Bar 'n' Grill as we had presumed. He didn't see us, so we stormed in.

"Alright," I said, pinning him to the wall. "We know what you did to me at the speedway."

"Really?" Bean said. "Why would I have wasted my time there? I don't know how you could think I could do such a thing!"

"I know that you're pretty much a pyromaniac. Why wouldn't you?"

In this case, it was hopeless, as Bean wouldn't cooperate, so we left.

Some time later, I was once again on the track, driving my Pagani Zonda Cinque. Coming up the same place, it happened again, but at the front. As the Zonda slid, the steering was kaput. It sounded like something was scraping on the track underneath the Pagani. Because of the kaput steering, the Zonda went smack-dab into a pile of tires, just after I had bailed out. This had both angered me and gotten me perplexed, as I didn't know what to think. Tails was in the garage again, waiting patiently.

"Well, what now?" Tails inquired.

After a look at the underbody, I sighed with disgust. "This time it's the front transaxle. That's what locked the front wheels. May as well ride a bull. What 'dya say, Tails? How about you see to the Zondas while I go check out Bean again?" Tails enjoyed working on mechanical devices, so he eagerly chose to do so.

With two of my Zondas totaled, I didn't really feel like driving any of the others to the bar, so I chose the rather ugly German Gumpert Apollo S, a 700 horsepower monster which is terrifying for the amateur driver to misuse, and still terrifying for a professional driver like me. While driving to the bar, some thoughts crossed my mind:

"Perhaps something is being overlooked. Could Bean really be the suspect?"

I had to snap out of it and focus on the road ahead of me. Something must have been amiss. If not, what?

This time, I decided not to storm in. Instead, it'd be like a lecture. Almost.

"Bean, could you just tell the truth?"

"I have, can't you see? Why don't you just leave me alone?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bark the Polar Bear, Bean's companion, move out the door. "Eh," I thought. "This place is so cheap they don't even have an indoor restroom."

I continued. "I don't like the look of this, Bean. What are you hiding?"

"Nothing! Now, just leave me alone, or else you're gonna get it!"

"Oh sure, wha…"

I stopped short. Bark had come back inside, behind me. I turned just in time to see him swing down a glass bottle my direction. I jumped out inches away from the bottle and its shattered pieces. Bean, being the oddball he was, jumped for the shards for his love of shiny things. Bark, however, took a charge at me. Terrified, I bolted for the door, with him crashing through the wall. With just little distance ahead of him, I started the Gumpert. I think he stopped to stare at the ugly piece of machinery. Problem: its rear wheels had gotten stuck in a ditch. Bark tried to catch me in my predicament, but the wheels kicked up dirt and dust from the exhaust in his face. He ran off from the fury of dirt and grime. I couldn't relax, though, as he had taken his Extreme Gear (a floating high-speed skateboard), ready to pursue.

The Gumpert blew out of the trench with its V8 engine growling. I had reached asphalt, thundering away. But guess what? Bark had started his Extreme Gear and was up on my tail. The chase was pretty quick on that windy mountain road. There was a sharp hairpin turn onto the IS4 Azure Lake Bridge. I knew that Bark's Extreme Gear could not handle the turn at 212 mph. The quick flick of the wheel brought the rear end into a long, smoky drift, but I handled it just perfectly, barely scraping the railing. Bark, however, couldn't stop the Extreme Gear before crashing over the rail and into the bay.

That didn't mean relief to me, though, as I felt a jerk up toward the front. I wrestled the steering wheel to the left thinking it was a bomb. Up the Gumpert went on an empty car loader and into the air. During the explosion, it had lost one of its tires, so I had to call out to Tails on the CB Radio to get my tow truck out here.

"Hey, Tails, I need help. I lost one of the tires on the Gumpert and I can't drive it. There's no spare."

"Where are you?"

"The IS4 North Azure Lake Bridge."

"You're going to have to push it off the bridge. Can you do it?"

"As long as the Gumpert's ugly face doesn't kill me."

Tails picked me up in my tow truck later that day. Because of everything that occurred, I had asked to rally up a couple of the Freedom Fighters in the area for a meeting. Rotor Walrus, tech genius; NICOLE, the AI of New Mobotropolis; Tails, who was here earlier; and Princess Sally Acorn, leader of the Freedom Fighters, was there. Princess Sally was first to speak.

"So why the rallying, Darren?" Sally had asked me.

"I don't like what's been happening to me the past few days. If I didn't know better, it'd seem to be a threat of some sort."

"What exactly happened?"

"A bomb went off right under my two of my cars once each time, wrecking both, and I lost a tire from another bomb possibly to sabotage."

"Hmm. Sounds bad. Any leads?"

"I would think so."

"Being?"

"Bean. And possibly Bark.

"Well, is there any evidence?"

"Aside from the explosive feeling, the thought crossed that Bean is innocent…and maybe Bark…"

Rotor cut in. "Darren, did you check with NICOLE if she knows what happened?"

Speechless.

"Gosh, I didn't think of that. Hey, NICOLE?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have any idea on what happened at the track today when I crashed the Zondas? Any glitches you found with the track or anything?"

"Hold on…there is something with the nanites. I can't make it out…"

"Well, then," I said. "I think I'll go out to the track and see if there's any what the problem is. I'll call you if I find anything."

At the Test Track, nothing seemed out of place. However, the area where I crashed seemed discolored. Just as I went there and kneeled down, a dark object went up right in front of me knocking my glasses off. "This seems peculiar. I should get everyone over here. Now…if only I could find my glasses…"

Soon, I called everyone over to the track. In placing a piece of metal onto the place where I had crashed, what looked like a pixilated stalagmite jutted out of the track for a split-second then back in.

"Well, I'll be," NICOLE exclaimed.

"The nanites in the track are the gremlins," I said. "How could this have happened?" I asked NICOLE.

"Oh, "NICOLE said in concern. "A glitch in the system. Some of the nanites had a motion coding error, which forced them to move upward under even the mildest pressure. I think I can fix it."

"Well, that explains the crashing at the track, but that doesn't explain your Gumpert." Rotor concluded.

Rotor had a good point there, so we went into the garage and checked out the underbody of the untouched Gumpert.

"It was sabotage," I replied. "Seems to be that Bark had planted a small charge in the wheel well. I had seen him go out of the bar and back in while I talked with Bean. Of all things, he got what was coming to him."

"Why is that?"

"'Cause he almost got a heart attack from seeing the ugly Gumpert, he tore down the bar Bean and he was in, and while he was chasing me, he fell into the bay. Speaking of which…"

Here was Bark, still in the bay, with Bean not helping him, simply because of Bean's adoration for shiny things…

"Hey, Bark! This spoon has a nice glossy finish!" Bean exclaimed from the rail. "Can I keep it?"

Bark only grumbled.


End file.
